Summer's Last Breath
by Alaiz
Summary: When Popuri returned to Mineral Town after her failed romance with Kai, everything came crashing down. [Oneshot]


**Summer's Last Breath**

**by Alaiz**

Popuri returned to the idyllic Mineral Town like Lazarus from the grave, reborn through a mystical experience. The kindly "doctor" whose daughter had died from a back-alley abortion had given her back her life.

"I...I...couldn't tell you." Popuri's repressed fears gushed out during her first therapy session after abortion.

"You locked it all away," said the Doctor. "It was only natural for you to hide what you most feared."

Popuri pushed her face into the side of the wingback chair. The Doctor handed her several tissues from the box on his desk. "It's too painful," Popuri sobbed, "to talk about."

"You feared the abortion because you thought you deserved to die for being such a bad girl. Wasn't that familiar feeling, Popuri? Haven't you felt that way many times in your life when the circumstances didn't warrant it?"

"It was careless and wrong of me to allow it happen. I thought Kai's love will assure us of a happy future...whatever happens. How could I've been so naive?" Another sob escaped from her throat. "I stopped taking the Pill. Christ, I had a hard enough time taking it in the first place, and then I stopped!"

"You've acknowledged the reality and that's the first step in assuming responsibility. This is the first time you've been able to recognize that your neurosis leads you to unsatisfactory behavior. Now you will learn that you have a choice. I don't believe you will ever make this mistake again."

Popuri wept harder because it seemed the Doctor was telling her he believed her.

People who thought therapy was a superficial pastime if you had nothing better to do were grossly ill-informed. The agony of remembering---of going over the painful details of her shattered relationship, of running away from her family and friends...from her life---left Popuri exhausted and often hoarse from crying. She still worried about what her mother and Rick would say if they found out she became pregnant, aborted the child, and was seeing the Doctor, who recently received a specialization in Psychiatry. Although the Doctor urged her, she would not tell them the ordeal she had gone through.

"You don't have to tell them you're in therapy. You're here for yourself. From what you've told me about Lillia and Rick, I doubt if they could understand. But it's not your fault they can't understand, Popuri. It's their problem."

Popuri always cried hardest when the Doctor said something wasn't her fault, as if being absolved of blame was the most excruciating part of analysis.

"And just because they don't understand, Popuri...may not mean they don't love you. It may simply mean that they don't understand you. But it may be necessary for you to allow yourself to be angry with them for a time."

It frightened Popuri to get angry with her family. If she created evil thoughts about her mother, her imagination would turn her face crimson, she would clutch her heart, wave her arms frantically and expire in their kitchen.

Popuri told the Doctor about the time she went home with hepatitis, and about Ann and how Ann's father loved everything she did and how sometimes she had hated Ann for being loved. It pained her that her father left her and his brother to take care of their ailing mother, although his intentions were for the best. Still, he abandoned them...

"It wasn't Ann's fault her father loved her. How can I hurt people like that?" she pleaded, remembering how she snobbed Ann whenever they crossed paths.

The Doctor fixed her a penetrating look. "How can you hurt yourself?"

-- -- -- -- -- --

_How can you hurt yourself?_

"What is the answer?" Popuri felt the tears running down her neck. Tears everywhere. She was drowning in them.

Her room was silent. Time seemed to be frozen. The empty bottle of Valium stopped rolling.

Popuri dragged herself toward the phone, the room spinning inside her head. Her hands shook as she grasped for her old, dog-eared address book. Now the damned pages had turned into knives; the pain was unbearable and she knew there were only moments left before the room would come crashing in. She dialed the number and prayed she got it right.

"Hello?" Ann's voice sounded anxious at the other end of the line.

Popuri wept into the receiver.

**THE END**

* * *

**Alaiz's Notes: **Ok...that was rather sad, eh? I wanted to write something good about Popuri's elopement with Kai but I also wanted the ever bubbly, pink-haired girl most of us loved (and hated sometimes. Hehe!) to act mature, sad, miserable---everything she was not in the game. I am only a fanfic authoress. Don't flame me. XD 


End file.
